Me = teacher

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

It may seem that some of my threads have had something to do with languages, such as

this one,
this one,
and this one

and this has, too.

I began to study Japanese on my own when I was 14 in 1999. Although I have never had Japanese at school myself, I ended up teaching it here in this town Ylivieska. So in this topic, I intend to keep something like a diary. I'll tell you how I prepare for the lessons, answer your questions, and even tips from you guys what and how I should teach are welcome. After the course has begun September 16th I'll keep you on track how it has gone and so on.

If this topic isn't a success, I'll consider abandoning it, I'm not sure if I have time to do this anyway. However, I have a permission from Lady Vulpix to post even if there aren't new replies after my last post if I have something new to tell. Don't worry, it's not like I double-posted every day, perhaps once a week.

[mr_pikachu]

So, um, just a question... is this more of a Japanese topic or a teaching topic? Your introduction made me wonder. Depending on which one it is, I might actually have something to contribute!

[Fett One]

I guess this means any questions we have can be asked here instead of asking over in Questions Only. Problem is, what do we talk about in Questions Only now? lol

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

mr_pikachu: This is a topic where I tell you about my Japanese course. This isn't "Learn Japanese at TPM". You can post questions and also what you think I should teach there and how. If you have any suggestions please reply here. I hope this is the one where you'd like to contribute, I didn't make out which one you'd like.

Fett One: Yes, Questions Only is one of the reasons I made this topic. It's hard to answer these questions with questions. But you are right. Questions Only is dying like all the other games seem to be, too.

The biggest challenge of the course is that some students may have no basic knowledge at all and others know more than me, that was a problem at least in the last course. But I'm planning to teach BOTH basic grammar AND kanji already in the beginning so all the students get what they want.

The previous course was only two days last February, and it was the first time I worked as a teacher. I have no teacher education but I still was accepted to teach it. This course is longer, and it's on every Tuesday evening. It seems that there are going to be lots of younger students this time, ones who are interested in anime, manga and so on. I think that's going to be great and I'm really looking forward to it.

[Water Pokemon Master]

So it took you how many years to learn it until you were pretty good at it? I'm taking it for the first time when I go back to school (UC Irvine), and am planning on taking it for at least 2 years. Think that'll be enough?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Water Pokemon Master: I admit I haven't studied actively all the time, took sometimes really long breaks, but for 9 years I have studied. I think two years of intense studying could bring you to some level, however remember that Japanese is a language which offers a challenge of endless studying with all those characters and levels of speech, for instance the differences between formal and informal speech. Also vocabulary is full of words which do not resemble any European expressions and so on. I'm not sure if I'm good enough at Japanese to teach it but I still want to take the challenge.

But mr_pikachu, what did you have to contribute?

[shazza]

I envy you learning a second language. I used to do a bit of Indonesian during high school, however lack of motivation made me drop it in 2005. Sort've regret it now. I'd love to learn Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew and probably a lot more; other languages and cultures have always fascinated me since an early age.

How did you begin to study Japanese on your own in '99? Did you read books? Was the internet a help? Tutor?

Congratulations on keeping it going after 9 years and becoming successful at it, you should be extremely proud of yourself.

[Crystal Mew]

I just wanted to say good job for learning japanese. When I was 14 my mom got me "teach yourself japanese" cd roms, but I never did much of them...they were just too difficult or something for me to keep going.

I wish I was fluent in some other language though, that would be awesome.

[Zak]

I cannot imagine what it would be like to suddenly become fluent in another language. Well, I do speak Hebrew fluently, but to me it doesn't really feel like what most people call a "second language", seeing as I don't remember learning it. I grew up in Israel with American parents so it was also technically a first language along with English, because I don't remember there ever being a time of NOT knowing one. Apparently my first words were in English, but calling Hebrew a "second language" for me is like calling a twin younger or older based on who rolled out first.

I used to be interested in learning Japanese, not so much anymore. But a language that I would love to learn is Russian.

[mr_pikachu]

But mr_pikachu, what did you have to contribute?

Mostly stuff on teaching in general (not teaching Japanese), which I now know has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. ^_^;;

I would be interested in learning Japanese; have a couple of books on the subject, actually. For now, though, time is too great a factor. I may just have to audit a Japanese course one of these days.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

shazza: Thanks. But Japanese isn't my second language, it's English and my first language is Finnish. All Finns even take Swedish at school and I did in 1998, too. I started German in 1999 as well so Japanese was actually my fourth or fifth language. Still it's the one I've invested most if we don't count English. This means my English is better than my Japanese and if you see me making grammar errors here at TPM it means I'm perhaps not able to say it in Japanese etiher.

And oh yes, I never had a tutor, but I use books, the internet, watch Japanese movies and animes and listen to Japanese music.

Crystal Mew: Thank you too. Don't give up, if you find an interesting language, go for it!

Zak: I'm sure the best way to learn language isn't studying but hearing and talking it ever since you're a child so you have been succesfull in learning both English and Hebrew.

My interest in Japanese has also been on the edge many times, that's why I have had some long breaks, but I always regained it. I'm a little scared of becoming a teacher because I've never really got my friends become interested in Japanese. I even may have had a negative effect, but I hope it's not a problem because the students should be interested enough already when they take the course.

I've studied some Russian as well but don't remember a thing. I haven't mentioned French, Chinese and Spanish in this topic but I have studied them, too.

mr_pikachu: Stuff on teaching in general? I'd really like to see them here, I wanted you guys to help me to plan the classes like I said, what I should teach and how.

[Magmar]

Ooh, I aced all my teacher ed. courses when I was an education major at the university... (that quickly changed to pure mathematics/meteorology) I could help you out if you need it! I know tons of useless education shit!

I speak Spanish. It's so fun! It sucks that I have the skin I do though 'cuz I can pass for latino if I want. Then it's not fun cuz my knowing Spanish becomes... expected...

[Dark Scizor]

Wait, you were 14 in 1999? I had always thought that I was older than you, and I only just turned 20 in June...

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Magmar: I'd appreciate your help. I haven't thought about getting myself teacher education too much. I'm afraid I would have to move to a bigger town like Oulu or even Helsinki or something if I wanted to study education science. I'm happy with my current salary and studying at a school how to teach sounds like a pain right now.

Spanish = fun. Like in Finnish language, the verbs conjugate so that there's no need for showing the subject in the sentences. However, I didn't take the course this year because I want to concentrate on Japanese. I am going to study just English in the same institute where I teach Japanese.

Dark Scizor: Hm, you sound like you have kept an eye on me for some time, that's cool. According to my 'friends', I was too old for Pokemon already back then. If someone wants to discuss that post in General Discussion, heh.

I've chosen 'Japanin kielen alkeet' the first Japanese study book I ever read through to be the 'offical' course book. I just read a review on it (7 years too late) from a Finnish Japanese pop culture magazine and it said the book doesn't suit for self-studying. Oh well. And more progress, I received a text message from my English teacher who works at the institute office the day before yesterday and she said there are 10 students so far and the course will be there probably.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Here's something shazza asked for in Questions Only. My favourite web dictionaries.

Finnplace index
A good Finnish-English-Finnish dictionary. Is down often though.

kaannos.com
A multi-language dictionary originated from Finland I tihnk.

Jim Breen's WWWJDIC
A very good Japanese dictionary, better than any book I've read.

I received new info from the English teacher last Tuesday and she said there are 13 students now and she gave me a list of them and other papers I need. The first lesson is going to be exciting, of course. Perhaps I'll first introduce myself and ask the students introduce themselves, like why they want to learn Japanese and what their experiences are on it. Then I plan to teach the students how to write their names and make them write name cards, I have a terrible face-name-memory. We'll go through the pronunciation differences between Finnish and Japanese and the first chapter in the book and I'll teach some kanji meaning and etymology, too. I'll perhaps even take Full Metal Alchemist opening song Melissa or the outro Vivid from Final Fantasy Unlimited and give them a look at the lyrics if I have time. What do you guys think of my plan?

[mr_pikachu]

Not a bad idea. A lot of them will probably want to learn Japanese because of anime, after all. Of course, you do run the risk of it backfiring, especially if you pick a song that otaku are certain to know already. You know the culture better than I do, so definitely use your judgment if you decide on including that in your first lesson.

Oh, and take it from someone who's been there (and is still there)... if you happen to get a belligerent class, don't back down. Just lay down the law. I'd say you've got a 99% chance of getting a good class of students who want to participate, especially considering the subject you're teaching. But if you have that one group of students who talk back, sleep in class, and so on, then you'll want to be prepared. If nothing else, you'll be pleasantly surprised when you don't have those problems.

(On a side note, my personal opinion is that it's okay to show some weakness, at least in terms of demonstrating that you're human. However, I'd strongly advise against indicating in any way that you're not perfectly qualified in the subject matter. If you do, you're inviting loads of unwarranted criticism and apathy. Don't give them a reason to doubt your knowledge.)

[RedStarWarrior]

I'm looking to teach ESL in Japan, personally.

[Clark]

ur teaching finnish to japanese? nice. i wish you all the best ^^
yes jim breen is definitely one of the best online resources for japanese.

definitely the first day would be introductions(native language) writing names. then progress through the next few classes introducing each other in japanese and hiragana.

not really sure about the lyrics and all, wouldnt really consider song lyrics the best example on proper grammar :p

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

mr_pikachu: Perhaps I won't include the lyrics and the song in my first lesson then. In the two-day course last February, I gave lyrics for the Digimon opening Butterfly but it was when we had only 45 minutes left or so. They liked it, some girls nearly danced in the class, but there was a risk that if I had introduced it in the first lesson back there, I might not had had the same students come again. To be exact, some students actually didn't come on the second day but it's partially explained by that the course was on Friday and Saturday. But what I could do now in the first lesson I could ask them to write the names of their favourite animes/mangas/Japanese videogames/movies on the blackboard. I don't know if it's a good idea, but perhaps you guys could tell your opinions on this, too. And will I be laughed if I mention Pokemon as my favourite anime?

I think usually the students who come to this kind of class may talk with each other loudly, but that often on the subject, maybe I could even ask them to tell what they are talking about if they do. I think they were discussing Sailor Moon during the last lesson and there I wanted to hear what they were talking but I didn't ask. Anyways, if they don't behave, I'll have to think what I should do then.

I'm quite sure I'll have to answer to some questions with "I don't know" but I have books with me to help me and perhaps even the Internet. That brings me another question, what will the students think of a teacher that has a look at dictionaries and grammar books often.

RedStarWarrior: My respect on you just rose by 50%, making it something like 120% or so.

ACE135CC: I assume you meant I teach Japanese language in Finland to Finnish students. That's what I do.

The first chapter in the study book includes introduction phrases like hajimemashite.

About the grammar of song lyrics, that's a good point. I'll have to warn the students before I give the lyrics. Many of them are young and their school level doesn't require too much knowledge on Finnish grammar, let alone other languages. On the other hand, they remember easily IF they have been clever in language classes because they have just learned the consepts and such.

Only two days left!!

[mr_pikachu]

Well, I wouldn't say don't give them anime lyrics, but at least be conscious of your audience. Certain things might bore some people while pushing others too far beyond their knowledge level. As the instructor, that's your judgment call to make. If you think you know them well enough to pick a good source, then now might be a great time for that sort of icebreaker.

As for saying "I don't know," and looking at reference texts, the advice I received during my training was simply to stall. That is, saying something like "That's a good question. There are a couple of things I want to confirm before I answer, because I don't want to mislead you. So, let me get back to you." The idea was that stalling until you could get the answer in private would be better than outright admitting a lack of knowledge. You have to be careful with that technique, though... it's probably better to say "I don't know" if you think they'll realize you're deceiving them. How good are you at lying?

(The best solution is to have all the answers. I'm sure you can handle that, right? ^^)

[DarkestLight]

Hrm. Very intriguing. I'll definitely be tuning into this thread. I also have self-taught myself Japanese, but it was for very short periods. I however, stopped in 2002, so I only have 5 years of it(Maybe more, if anyone knows when Grandia came out for the Saturn in Japan-it took me a year to get it stateside, so that would be year 1, which I think is 97. Unsure). Most of it was to help with my import gaming spree-as well as to give me an outlet from Spanish (which becomes second nature here...)

However, in college, I did buckle down and take Japanese (although, not as seriously, since I didn't go to the recording sessions, which would have helped immensely)-and so I reached 2.5 years of studying that way. I still have those books-which are still pretty good for teaching articles of speech and proper sentence structure.

WWWJDIC is exactly what I used back in the day to help learn/translate Japanese, I'm glad to see its still around.

As for the teaching aspect. ehh I've only taught in very small settings about a variety of topics so my knowledge is limited there. How old are the students you'll be teaching ?

[Dark-San]

Being billingual is a good thing, taking into account that it would reflect to your prospective employers that you have the potential to be posted to a country based on the language that you speak if your company actually has their operations there. Personally, I feel that learning Japanese is not exactly feasible. For entertainment purposes yes perhaps but never for the intention to be based off working in a Japanese firm in Japan.

The last thing I want to have in mind is to be overwork due to stress and died in my own office. >.<; Although the pay for a normal clerk is quite high S$3000 (US$2200) a month, most of their salary goes off paying for the high inflation rate they have there.

Either way whether if I like it or not, I must now get use to the idea of learning basic Japanese. Not only to understand the anime series even when there is no subtitles but also due to the fact that I would heading down to the far east for vacation this coming December.

Hah and yes if you are asking me, I would also be heading down to Comiket 75 in Tokyo Big Sight. So unless if Mikachu is willingly to teach me some basic Japanese to communicate with the locals, I might have to end up buying a simple Japanese phrase book to do the job. XD

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

mr_pikachu: I want to be conscious of my audience, that's why I'm planning to ask for their favourite animes, mangas, videogames and so on. You said earlier that I take a risk if I choose a song an otaku is likely to know already, if I understood correctly. I'm not going to give them my translation of the lyrics, however, I'll just give a vocabulary which includes grammar used in the song. One thing I know is that some people want to learn how to write their favourite anime songs. That's what I have been doing, I've studied anime songs and I like writing them in kanji/hiragana/katakana. I even tested this during the first lesson. I chose the word 'kanashimi', 'sadness' as an example, and a girl asked how would you write it. I knew she was a Full Metal Alchemist fan and I think she asked because the word appears in the opening 'Melissa'.

I didn't have to say 'I don't know' yet. I'm not good at lying, at least I want to think I'm not, so the time will come.

DarkestLight: Nice to see you're interested, too. What are recording sessions? I have always had listening comprehension worse than my writing comprehension. Especially in English language. When I was at lukio (a Finnish equivalent to High School, I don't remember, if I mentioned it already) my listening comprehension part of the Abitur final exam wasn't too good but I still got the second best grade from the test, reading comprehension part saved me. I incidentially had heard my headmaster complaining my poor performance (he didn't mention my name but I knew he was talking about me) after the listening part and I still laugh at him, having taught him a lesson.

Most of the students are young, the youngest one was 11, I think, and almost all of them mentioned anime as their inspiration. One older student was there, and she admitted she didn't know what anime is!

Dark-San: I used to dream of becoming a game programmer in Japan, but it faded as I found out getting to the country has been problematic, I've my education here in Finland. Yes, I planned to move to Japan still when I was something like 16 years old, but changed my mind later.

If you have any questions regarding the langauge, PM me. I assume you have watched anime more than I though, so you may have a different knowledge of vocabulary.


This is a long post, but then to the diary part. The first lessons went great! I think I gave a little...scattered and intricate (now come the limits of my English vocabulary) impression, I said some things wrong, corrected them at once though and I didn't follow my plans so carefully. However, I remember only one mistake I wrote on the board, though. I forgot one stroke when I gave the character for root, book making it just tree, but a student pointed it out at once.

I asked them why they want to learn Japanese, then I proceeded to writing names, then pronunciation, then I let them go though the first chapter of the book orally. I showed also a video about writing kanji. I didn't ask for their favourite animes and didn't give song lyrics yet. I didn't tell my favourite animes are Pokemon, Sailor Moon and Digimon. Finally, I asked everyone who's going to be in the next lesson to raise a hand, and everyone did.

[mr_pikachu]

Sounds like you had a great first class! At this point, if you feel it's the right move to make, don't be afraid to do some anime stuff. One class period is often enough to give you a clear picture of who your students are and why they're in your class. You now know them better than anyone else, so trust your instincts!

(By the way, I'm impressed that one of your students was able to correct you. In my experience, that's rare in the first lesson. Unless you'd already shown them that character, that is... you may have a very smart student on your hands.)

[DarkestLight]

Recording session are just that, I just couldn't think of the right words myself. But yes, they just have a tape and you listen to it over and over until you get the basic lesson down, then you record yourself and hand it to the teacher, who then tests you on it to make sure you didn't just copy the tape. Yeah, redundant, but it friggin worked.

Congrats on your first class going so well. I concur, someone able to correct you is really good for a first day scenario.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

mr_pikachu: I think I increased the students' interest by taking Full Metal Alchemist opening Melissa yesterday. It was a surprise, I first hid the papers below my books and gave them to the students half an hour before the end of the 1 1/2 hour-class. The papers included the complete lyrics, every single verse three times, first in romaji, then in hiragana/katakana and finally in kanji/hiragana/katakana. I also gave them a Japanese-Finnish vocabulary. I didn't remember to ask for their favorite animes, perhaps next time.

I did have showed the charater correctly during the same lesson but the second time was incorrect and that the student pointed out. I think he would have noticed my mistake anyway though, there are a few students who may know more than me, but I can use that as an advantage when I want to confirm something or want someone to explain something better.

DarkestLight: Doesn't sound too reasonable. We don't do things like that in Finland, the only time our own pronunciation is tested is when we conversate in the classes in the foreign language. Some people have been talking about adding an oral expression examination and I don't know the latest turns of the events though. And thanks for the congrats!


I had some trouble on the second class. The same day a person from my neighbour town Pyhäjärvi had shot 10 people in a school in Kauhajoki, a city south from my hometown Ylivieska. I had asked another teacher if I should talk about it with the students before the class, but she said I shouldn't mention it. Anyway, I couldn't help commenting on it. I just said to the students that they have probably talked about the shootings all the day and now it's time to study. I hope they were relieved, I myself had had nearly enough of watching the news that day.

I corrected two mistakes I had noticed after the first lesson, then gave more info on Japanese pronunciation and we went through two exercises from the book. One student was a little nervous, I think, she said I should skip her when it was her turn, and I did ask another student to answer the question instead of her. I don't know if it was a right move, I have been used to teachers who just keep interrogating the pupil even if he or she doesn't want to answer.

I also introduced three kanjis with their etymologies.

After the Full Metal Alchemist opening I noticed I still had 15 minutes left and I hadn't planned anything to do! I would have been able to move to the second chapter in the book, but I thought it would take more than 15 minutes. So I just asked if the students had questions about the lesson. We talked about translating anime lyrics, how did the Finnish subtitled version differ from the literal translation. Then I asked everyone who is going to be in the third lesson to rise hand. Everyone did and I said the lesson was here and let them go.

[Dark Scizor]

Dark Scizor: Hm, you sound like you have kept an eye on me for some time, that's cool. According to my 'friends', I was too old for Pokemon already back then. If someone wants to discuss that post in General Discussion, heh.

Yeah, I've been stalking you since day 1.

Seriously, your username is just one of the ones that I can always remember whenever I come here...don't know why.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Dark Scizor: My name is a magic word. I recite it often inside my head.

Perhaps it's time for a little report.

On the third class I made the students write words in hiragana on blackboard for the first time and showed them a version of VIVID with my subtitles. I liked it very much how the lesson went, although I had to point out some mistakes next time. The fourth lesson was as good as the third one. I asked for their favorite animes, mangas, games and movies and they didn't laugh at mine. I showed them an AMV where I had combinated Blind Guardian's 'Valhalla' and the second Pokemon movie.

The day before yesterday, was the last lesson before the autumn break. One thing that sticked in my mind after it was that one student criticized my methods a little. He proposed that I shouldn't teach the character history like I did, I should only deal with the 'primitives' of the kanjis. I hadn't heard the word 'primitive' before when talking about characters but we figured out that it meant the parts of the character, one of them I am accustomed to call a radical. But I asked the other students do they agree and they said I should continue as I had done so I took it as a vote and decided not to change my style.

Oh yes, and it seems nobody has quitted yet, I have only two or three people absent each time, and they aren't the same people every time.

One thing I must think about is whether or not I'll teach a follow-up course next spring. I must have time, knowledge and energy to make it happen.